Tradition in the Public Square: A David Novak Reader »

Randi L. Rashkover is assistant professor of religious studies at George Mason University. She is the author of Revelation and Theopolitics: Barth, Rosenzweig, and the Politics of Praise.

Martin Kavka is associate professor of religious studies at Florida State University. He is the author of Jewish Messianism and the History of Philosophy.

Tradition in the Public Square collects key essays by David Novak, one of the world’s leading contemporary Jewish thinkers. Novak’s insightful writings in this reader address the inextricable relationship between philosophical and theological matters and present the implications of his philosophical theology for social ethics and theo-politics.

“One of the marks — perhaps the most important mark — of a great thinker is the ability to respond to the conditions and problems of one's time by changing the terms of the conversation. By this standard, David Novak ranks as one of the great American theologians of our time. His work, a response to the primary issue confronting modern Judaism — namely, what it means to be a part of Western culture yet separate from its secularized form of life — has helped to make Jewish theology and philosophy thriving fields in North American university life.”

— from the introduction

Acknowledgments     ix
Introduction   Randi Rashkover   Martin Kavka     xi
Why Tradition?
The Role of Philosophy
Philosophy and the Possibility of Revelation: A Theological Response to the Challenge of Leo Strauss (1996)     3
The Dialectic between Theory and Practice in Rabbinic Thought (2004)     21
Revelation, Covenant, and Law: The Phenomena of Tradition
Heschel on Revelation (1999)     37
Creation and Election (1995)     46
The Life of the Covenant (1995)     66
The Role of Dogma in Judaism (1988)     73
Is There a Concept of Individual Rights in Jewish Law? (1994)     88
The Precondition for the Phenomena: Noahide Law as Natural Law
Noahide Law: A Foundation for Jewish Philosophy (1979)     113
Persons in the Image of God (1998)     145
Natural Law, Universalism, and Multiculturalism (1998)     154
Tradition in the Public Square
Judaism and Multicultural Politics
Law: Religious or Secular? (2000)     163
What Is Jewish about Jews and Judaism in America? (1993)     187
The Right and the Good (2002)     202
Is Natural Law a Border Concept between Judaism and Christianity? (2004)     213
The Treatment of Islam and Muslims in the Legal Writings of Maimonides (1986)     231
Case Studies: Judiasm and Social Ethics
A Jewish View of War (1974)     253
A Jewish View of Abortion (1974)     266
A Halakhic View of Responsibility (1982)     279
Religious Communities, Secular Societies, and Sexuality: One Jewish Opinion (1998)     283
Jewish Marriage and Civil Law: A Two-Way Street? (2000)     304
Can Capital Punishment Ever Be Justified in the Jewish Tradition? (2004)     328
A Jewish Argument for Socialized Medicine (2003)     345
Index of Subjects and Names     360
Index of Scripture and Other Ancient References     370